VOL. CXXXIV—NO. 60
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010
WWW.COLUMBIASPECTATOR.COM
Emily Bell to lead J-school new media Guardian digital content director appointed to Tow Center BY LEAH GREENBAUM Spectator Staff Writer
embry owen / senior staff photographer
BURSTING THE BUBBLE | The Parks Department is facing local opposition to its proposal to construct bubbles over the Central Park tennis courts, off of 96th Street, so that the facilities can stay open during winter seasons. The bubbles would be powered by generators that may increase pollution.
Residents oppose city’s proposal for tennis court bubbles
BY GILA SCHWARZSCHILD Columbia Daily Spectator A project with giant bubbles powered by diesel fuel tanks is the newest unwelcome development on the Upper West Side. The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation recently drafted a proposal to enclose Central Park’s outdoor tennis courts with bubble-like structures this winter, but local opponents say that the change could be aesthetically and environmentally damaging to the park. Twenty-six courts, located at the north end of the park near 96th Street, are currently only open during the spring and summer months. The city, in conjunction with the Department of Parks and Recreation, has requested proposals to install 35-foot vinyl
bubbles over the courts to be heated by generators. With the new structures, there would also be an increase in cost to use the facilities, ranging from $40-$100 per hour. The local impact of the bubbles has been the subject of debate for weeks, and advocates are now circulating a petition in an effort to persuade the parks department and city officials to kill the plan. Community Board 8, which represents the Upper East Side, recently retracted its support for the bubbles, and Mel Wymore, chair of the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7, said she does not support the project. “My hope is that they’ll take this one off the table too,” she said, adding that it was an “illconceived proposal.” Wymore said that CB7 has told representatives of all the buildings
along Central Park West about the proposal, posted information on its website, informed parks organizations, and put the proposal on the agenda for the next Parks and Environment Committee meeting. She also noted that the committee meeting, set for May 13, has been moved to an alternate location to accommodate the expected crowd. Landmark West, an Upper West Side preservation organization, set up a petition online against the implementation of these bubbles. “It needs to be brought to the attention of park officials,” Cristiana Peña, director of community outreach at Landmark West, said. Peña said that the petition, still online, has over 1,300 signatures so far. Cristina DeLuca, a spokesperson for the Department of
Students protest SIPA speaker choice
BY ELIZABETH SCOTT Spectator Senior Staff Writer
For some students at the School of International and Public Affairs, the choice of Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup, as graduation speaker is both inappropriate and uninspiring. Pandit, who has received four degrees from the University and is a trustee, became Citigroup CEO in 2007. Some students said that in light of the recent economic crisis, a representative from the banking industry is an unsuitable pick, particularly for a school that teaches public policy.
Honorary Degree Recipients Selection
“Part of the reason a lot of people come here is to understand some of the problems about poverty or development ... and one of the biggest things that’s happened during our time is ... the financial crisis,” Ahsan Kamal, SIPA ’10, said.“Banks and the whole bank industry ... have a very sort of direct relationship with the crisis.” Dean of SIPA John Coatsworth said in an email to SIPA students who expressed concern that the choice reflects the school’s efforts to draw speakers from a broad variety of fields that graduates will enter. “Over the years, we have tried to select a range of speakers
Doctor of Laws
Canada, the president and chief executive of Harlem Children’s Zone has gained national recognition for his trailblazing work to help New York families.
SEE SIPA, page 8 Joel I. Klein
Tony Kushner
Doctor of Laws
Doctor of Letters
Klein is the current chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, known for his launch of the reform strategy coined Children First.
Kushner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, and author, famous for Angels in America. He is a graduate of CC, and was once a theater critic for Spectator.
On Wednesday, Columbia announced this year’s eight honorary degrees and two winners of the Medal for Excellence for noteworthy alumni. Artists, educators, scientists, and scholars were among the recipients. The University will confer the degrees on May 18.
Geoffrey Canada
who reflect the diversity of our students and the changing issues of the time,” Coatsworth said. “Over a third of SIPA graduates find work in the private sector. In recent years, approximately ten percent of all graduates have taken jobs in the financial services industry alone, and a much larger proportion take positions in the regulatory agencies and central banks that will play crucial roles not only in resolving the current financial crisis, but in establishing policies that will prevent similar disasters in the future.”
Ron Gonen
Medal for Excellence
Xu Bing
Doctor of Humane Letters
Bing, vice presiCo-founder and dent of Beijing’s chief executive Central of RecycleBank, Academy of Gonen has Fine Arts, has encouraged enviproduced and ronmental stewshowcased his ardship in homes work around and on campuses. the globe. Bing His program isis a MacArthur sues rewards for fellow. switching to solar or wind energy. photos courtesy of columbia university. graphic by katherine taketomo
Parks and Recreation, said the department has no comment on the proposal or neighborhood opposition to it, though the proposal notes that environmental concerns are a priority, and states, “As the protector and provider of green spaces, Parks is deeply committed to respecting the environment. ... All proposed operational plans should include a detailed description of environmentally friendly practices planned for the Premises.” Peña said that it is important to raise awareness about this potential development. In addition to emailing and calling as many people as possible, Landmark West has been reaching out to other parks organizations with a similar SEE TENNIS BUBBLE, page 7
After reviewing 100 candidates from five different continents, Columbia Journalism School announced on Wednesday that Emily Bell will be leaving a longtime post at the Guardian to help lead Columbia’s efforts to advance digital media. Bell, who will remain a consultant for the British daily newspaper, will serve as the director of the newly-created Tow Center for Digital Journalism, starting this summer. As director of the Tow Center, she will help facilitate a new dual-degree program between the J-school and the School of Engineering and Applied Science that will allow students to study computer science and journalism together. In her new position, Bell will also teach graduate students, work on new business models for media, and collaborate with and lead studies on established news organizations. Since Bell began at the Guardian, the site has won numerous awards for online journalism and has drawn 37 million unique users per month, though the newspaper only has a circulation of 300,000. And in recent years, the J-school has upped its interest in new media as an important component in the newspaper industry’s uncertain future. Nicholas Lemann, J-school dean and Henry R. Luce professor, said in an interview on Wednesday, “It’s a big step forward for the school, but it’s a big step in a direction we were moving in already.” In a press release from the J-school, Bell—who couldn’t be reached on Wednesday—said that the Tow Center has an important
courtesy of columbia university
NEW AGE | Emily Bell from the UK’s Guardian is coming to CU.
opportunity to contribute to the transformations in the field. “Columbia’s unrivalled reputation for excellence in journalism training already attracts the cooperation and interest of the world’s leading news organizations, and the Center has the potential to play a transformative role in the future of journalism. I am eager to get started,” she said in the release. Despite the instability of the industry, the number of applicants to the journalism school—regarded as a top graduate program for journalism in the country—rose 39 percent earlier this year. The Tow Center was established in January with a focus on the digital reporting and presentation of news. Unlike professors in many graduate programs, J-School faculty, like Bell, often have longtime professional backgrounds. “We didn’t want to hire someone who just has an idea about how such things should be done. We wanted someone who has been out there doing it,” Lemann said. Tim Kiladze, Journalism ’10 and specializing in print, said that Bell’s hiring is a “continuation of what’s SEE J-SCHOOL, page 7
No union strike, CU housing unaffected BY SARAH DARVILLE Spectator Staff Writer
It was business as usual today for thousands of city building workers, after their union avoided a strike that could have left hundreds of local and Columbia buildings without basic services. New York City’s 32BJ union, a division of the Service Employees International Union, represents 30,000 workers, including those who work in University Apartment Housing buildings. UAH generally houses graduate students and faculty, but also oversees the undergraduate buildings 47 Claremont and Harmony Hall. The union reached a contract agreement with the city’s Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations late Tuesday night, dodging a strike that would have taken doormen, maintenance workers, superintendents, and porters off the job. On Wednesday, residents and workers alike were relieved that they didn’t have to deal with the inconveniences of a strike. “Last night, when I saw the notice that there was probably going to be a strike, I was worried,” said Tammy Mutassa, Journalism ’10 and a resident of Carlton Arms on Riverside Drive. “This morning, when I walked out of the elevator and saw that my doorman was there, it was kind of a relief to see him.” The resident manager at Carlton Arms, Ronald Pelissier, said that
STRIKE OUT | Carlton Arms, 362 Riverside Dr., would have lost its workers on Wednesday, but the union strike was called off late Tuesday night. though he would have understood was avoided this time around. the need to strike, it can become a “We have this contract renewed every three or four years, and prethuge burden for residents. “On top of all the stuff they ty much they settle when it comes deal with with school, they don’t down to it, because the city would need to deal with that,” he said be at a standstill,” she said. “Just the of his 400 residents, adding, “It trash alone—people don’t want to would have been bad for my have to deal with that.” building, so I’m glad we could The union and the Realty come to a conclusion.” Advisory Board had been negoBecause the city’s Department tiating the contract since March, of Sanitation has a history of not but had disagreed on wage incrossing picket lines, garbage creases, sick days, and workers’ would likely not have been picked insurance payments. up for the duration of the strike. The RAB released a statement When 32BJ last had its employ- that said they had “tentatively ees walk off the job in 1991, the reached an agreement with Local strike—and the garbage—lasted 32BJ” for a four-year contract for 12 days. that includes “average increases Loretta Zuk, the superinten- of wages and benefits of 2.99% dent at 547 Riverside Drive, was over the 4 years.” around for that strike, but said SEE NO STRIKE, page 8 that she wasn’t surprised that one
Opinion, page 4
Today’s Events
patrick yuan / staff photgrapher
INSIDE A&E, page 3
Sports, back page
GS students showcase talents this Saturday
Columbia tennis dominates Ivies for decade
At the first annual GS talent show, the school’s students and some administrators will compete in a GS-only forum, sharing their sometimes-overlooked artistic abilities with peers and members of other Columbia schools.
Men’s tennis has gone through many ups and downs over the course of its existence, but from 2000 until now, it has been the class of the Ivy League. In the time span, the Lions have earned five Ivy championships and have achieved success on the national stage.
Breaking out of Butler
Going Green Forum
Derek Turner suggests that students stop repressing the passions that don’t end up on résumés or transcripts.
Find out about the latest opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in energy. Davis Auditorium, CEPSR, 12:30-3:30 p.m.
Breaking up isn’t hard to do
Unveiling the Silence
Jordan Fraade reflects on his not-so-difficult decision to leave Spectator.
Watch NO! The Rape Documentary, and attend the following dialogue. 552 IRC, 7:30 p.m.
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April 22, 2010
April 22, 2010
Arts & Entertainment
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Students, admins to perform at first ever GS talent showcase BY ALLISON MALECHA Spectator Staff Writer It wouldn’t be fair to say that any one undergraduate school has a larger pool of talented artists than the others, but artists in the School of General Studies MUSIC often don’t get much attention. But on Saturday, the first annual Spring Talent Showcase, sponsored by the General Studies Student Council, will introduce the rest of the community to the other, nonacademic lives of GS students for the first time on a Columbia stage. The show is also unique in attempting bring GS faculty closer to the student body by featuring performances by GS administrators like Dean of Students Scott Halvorson to Associate Director of Communications Allison Scola. The GS website defines its students as having taken at least a one-year
break between high school and college. It just so happens that a good proportion of students spent that break in a professional artistic field. “I know a lot of schools do talent shows,” Katherine Edwards, president of GSSC, said. “But I do think it’s a little different just because most of our performers actually do have professional backgrounds in this.” Edwards herself was a professional opera singer before coming to GS—she will perform an aria at the showcase. The event is meant to open up dialogue about the nontraditional paths that some GS students have taken. How did Edwards go from singing opera at the Manhattan School of Music to majoring in economics at GS? “I figured out I wanted to get more of an education than just conservatory,” she said. “The first thing I took [through the School of Continuing Education] was
‘Principles of Economics.’ I loved the class so much, I decided to transfer.” With such a strong composition of artsy types, it’s surprising that this is the first such event put on by GSSC. Jessica Collins, co-coordinator for the showcase and GSSC senior class vice president, explained why this year is the year in which the event is being held: “It requires a concentration of effort in the area of student life, a priority of the 2009-2010 council.” Quick not to discredit previous years’ councils, Collins added that last year, the focus was more on primary policy, which “has actually enabled this year’s council to have more available funds to dedicate to improving the overall quality of our student life events.” By calling it the “first annual” talent show, the 2009-2010 GSSC hopes to make this showcase the first of many. “Our hope is that this event will become
as popular, or even more popular, than the gala,” Candice Arakelian, sophomore class president for GSSC and the event’s other co-coordinator, said. She was referring to Lunar Gala, the Chinese Students Club’s 31-year-old culture show. Although this is the first campus arts event specifically dedicated to GS students, that doesn’t mean that these students haven’t been involved in Columbia’s arts community up until this point. GS students constitute a majority of the Columbia Ballet Cooperative, and the CU Ballroom Dance Team and Raw Elementz also traditionally have GS participants. However, this is the first performance opportunity solely open to GS students. “We believe that both GS students and their CC, Barnard, and SEAS peers can learn much from each other not only academically,
but socially and culturally,” Collins said. Simultaneously highlighting the similarities and differences between GS students and those from the other undergraduate schools, the showcase displays GS students’ expertise, but in a traditional college event format. It’s also a chance for GS students to showcase their talents to their peers. With Columbia’s demanding school schedule, some students, according to Edwards, have had to shelve their artistic pursuits. “This is their first time coming to see me in an actual performance,” Edwards said of her GS friends. “It’s really our chance to share who we are.” WHERE IT’S AT Time: Saturday, April 24 at 1 p.m Place: Roone Arledge Auditorium Cost: Free
Undergrads try reading between subway lines For on-the-go Columbia students, reading on the subway is one common way to complete some schoolwork while out and about. But the merits of this uniquely Columbian experience—that is, doing reading for pleasure or for school on New York public transportation—are the subject of a great book debate for undergraduates. According to Rebecca Gray, BC ’13, reading on the go is a risky move. “Either you are really prolific and read like 80 pages in one go, but miss your subway stop, or you are constantly aware of your surroundings and look up multiple times between each stop to make sure you know where you are and when you need to get off,” she said. For many Columbians, it is this anxiety that stops them from
catching up on a big chunk of reading. “My stop can’t be too close, otherwise I act like a prairie dog,” Rayhan Momin, CC ’12, said of his own subway reading habits. A my St r i nge r, B C ’ 1 3 , doesn’t usually read on the subway, “partly so that I won’t miss my stop and partly so that I won’t get motion sickness.” Other students find the sensor y overload too distracting to focus. Louisa Clark, BC ’13, said, “I’m distracted by all the people way too much.” For students who are able to concentrate, however, the 1 train can allow for optimal Butler-level productivity. “I actually feel like I get more reading done on the subway than anywhere else,” Daniel Gonzalez, CC ’13, said. But Vanessa Thill, BC ’13, is surprised at how “few people read on the subway or do much of
anything compared to people in San Francisco,” especially considering “how obsessed New Yorkers seem to be with efficiency.” Gray insisted other wise. “People read on subways more than in libraries,” she said. “Every New Yorker seems to be reading.” Gonzalez agreed, stating, “Almost everybody reads on the subway. It’s more productive than just staring at empty space.” Or pretending to stare at empty space. Thill noted that many people, even work-laden Columbians, will while “away an hour simply eavesdropping or pretending to be fascinated with their shoes.” Gray is one such stealthy shoestarer, who takes the games of book observation a step further. “Reading other people’s books [is] really fascinating stuff,” she said. “But I hate it when they turn the page and you haven’t gotten to the end yet.”
courtesy of stephen dobay
WHEREFORE | At Riverside Theatre, SoA’s “Romeo and Juliet” offers a partially, but not wholly modern take on the play.
illustration by joanna wang
BY KATIE McNEIRNEY Columbia Daily Spectator
Student dramedy ‘Sophomoric’ hits close to home for drug curious BY ROSIE DUPONT Spectator Staff Writer Do you remember your sophomore slump? If not, “Sophomoric,” the new half-hour TV dramedy by Clea Litewka, Columbia University TV Film Productions president and CC ’10, will bring the memories flooding back. In three eight-minute episodes created for CUFP, “Sophomoric” explores the lives of seven college students coping with the apathy and depression of their sophomore years. How do they cope with the college blues? Self-medication. If “Sophomoric” had to be described in three words, those words would be: undergraduate drug experimentation. Let’s
face it—for most Columbia students, these three words resonate. As much as parents would like to believe their children are sitting behind ivy-trimmed gates drinking ginger ale and reading Kant, the ginger ale they dream of is usually spiked with whiskey, vermouth, and gin. In making the pilot, Litewka felt the urge to reveal the truth about college drug abuse. As she put it, “I was interested in exploring college students’ relationships with drugs and representing college students in their naked states.” Naked? Not quite. Revealed? Definitely. In network television, Litewka said, “all bad behaviors have to happen offstage.” In “Sophomoric,” Litewka had the creative control to show kids experimenting with drugs on-screen. The opening credits of the
series feature students firing up a bong, pulling weed out of private stashes, and lighting incense. In search of creative inspiration for the series, Litewka commented that she “watched a lot of movies with drug trips in them,” as well as shows set in college, such as “Felicity” and Judd Apatow’s “Undeclared”. In terms of film quality, “Sophomoric” is fairly rough around the edges, but it has a raw reality to it that is very appealing. The acting is hit-or-miss, but the lead actress, Brigitte Thieme-Burdette gives a truly convincing, unaffected portrayal of a slumping sophomore girl. Her determined pursuit of weed and her defeated line, “I just want to get baked,” are compellingly real. The episodes are available online at www. sophomorictheshow.com, a multimedia
blog that includes a place to watch the show and four scripts for those episodes in the series that have yet to be produced. It acts as a platform for Litewka’s work as well as for collaborators on the project. Litewka said she learned a lot while producing the series. “The process has been stressful, but it is rewarding to build something from the ground up,” she said. As president of CUFP, she wanted to be a model for undergraduates interested in film and to create crew jobs for kids looking for experience. “The best way to learn film and television production is to do them,” she said. So for all of those slumping sophomores out there looking for a show to watch while you “get baked,” tune into to “Sophomoric” and chill out.
SoA ‘Romeo’ mediates gap of past and present BY MELISSA ITZKOWITZ Columbia Daily Spectator “Romeo and Juliet” is certainly a tragedy as the SoA Theatre Arts Program presents it. But it is refreshing to share some laughs during what THEATER could be an utterly depressing theatrical cliche. The production, directed by Adriana Baer, MFA ’10, for a directing thesis production, has a modern twist that’s not fully fleshed out. The dialogue, though still spoken in Shakespearean English, is delivered with ease and humor rather than with acting. That being said, it is easy to understand, even for the group of French middle schoolers in the audience—the funny jokes are funnier, and the characters are more relatable. In fact, some of the lines were delivered as they would be in the 21st century. This relativity knocks down barriers that could otherwise be built between those less fond of Shakespeare while still entertaining Shakespeare’s biggest fans, and it encourages the actors to interact with the audience— quite literally, because the front of the stage is covered with tons of what look like wood chippings, which tend to fly into the front row during intense fight scenes. While the modern interpretation of the original dialogue is helpful and entertaining, some of the costume choices were a bit confusing. Like the rest of the play, they were modern, but not completely so. The women’s ruffled chokers coupled with modern pencil skirts and the men’s Shakespearean vests paired with the latest kicks caused some confusion. On the one hand, it added to the play’s humor, but on the other hand, it was odd that the Nurse was still wearing a skimpy dress when announcing Tybalt’s death. All of the characters had tremendous chemistry and were able to make the audience roar with laughter in Act I and shudder in Act II. Eileen DeSandre’s interpretation of the Nurse as that saucy grandmother everyone loves, Max Woertendyke’s hilarious portrayal of Mercutio, and Laurie Schroeder’s loving, though slightly bitchy Lady Capulet, were particularly impressive. Additionally, the shadowy effect upstage during scene changes and the haunting music added to the quasi-contemporary interpretation. Baer skillfully walked the emotional and chronological lines of the production—but audiences should beware the front row of the house because that’s one line that’s messy to cross.
WHERE IT’S AT
courtesy of clea llitewka
TAKE A HIT | The cast of the new student-produced TV show “Sophomoric” explores authentic themes that will resonate with slumping sophomores past and present.
Time: Wednesday through Saturday, showtimes vary Place: The Riverside Theatre at Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Ave. (between 120th and 122nd streets) Cost: Free with CUID
Editorial & Opinion
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The repressed Columbian masses
O
ur campus is full of repressed people. Though your peers seem to be thriving in their lives in Morningside, they have bottled-up urges D erek and needs that are Turner rarely fulfilled. Every O p en i ng day, they struggle against desires that tell Rem ar k s them to drop everything and get the release they need. Instead, our fellow students ignore the voices inside their heads and bury their noses even more firmly in their textbooks. They stand on the precipice of indulgence, but they are restrained by their studies in empty Hamilton classrooms and musty Butler stacks. Occasionally, though, despite efforts to the contrary, the young men and women we pass on Low Plaza simply cannot hold it in any longer. Sometimes, their pent-up frustration breaks out and finds satiation in some grand display or timid deed. I refer, of course, to the repression of all the interests, talents, and passions that take a backseat to our academic duties. It is a brutal practice that needs to be addressed. As long as this self-induced repression continues, our students will continue to suffer under the weight of all that they do not express in their academic pursuits. Granted, we come to Columbia in order to advance our knowledge of ancient texts, integrals, and cultural relativism. However, these represent only the first of many priorities that we as students and people need to consider. Focusing only on our academic development not only creates an imbalanced sense of living in our community, but also stifles the many other ways in which Columbians can benefit our city, community, and selves. Luckily, there are some Columbians who do a great job of pursuing growth in all of their abilities, which benefits everyone who witnesses their development. Take Postcrypt as an example. The recently threatened cultural showcase in the basement of St. Paul’s is the proper outlet for the musical and poetic talents that members of our student body would otherwise leave inside themselves. Just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Kayte Grace perform there, and as I
It’s not you, Spec. It’s both of us. BY JORDAN FRAADE
I don’t know the single worst decision I’ve made at Columbia, but I do know the single best. It was quitting Spectator. Two-thirds of the way into my yearlong tenure as head copy editor, I suddenly remembered that I was a volunteer. I agonized for a week about my decision not to finish the job I started, but on a September night, I finally called the copy staff into the office and told them I was resigning. My reasons for going, I explained, were not a reflection on the section or its members. I felt increasingly isolated and impotent in the office, I wanted to spend more time with friends before my upcoming semester abroad, I was fighting off a debilitating bout of depression, my grades were slipping, and I was getting nothing out of the job. The reasons all blurred together and probably didn’t make sense to anyone but me. But a week later, I was gone. I took two steps out of the office on my last night, and—I shit you not—kicked up my heels and punched my fist in the air on the way to the elevator. It was my first spontaneous gesture of joy since I began the job that January. A year and a half later, I mostly remember the extremes. The long, mundane nights in the office were excruciating—waiting for the next set of printouts and preparing to squint to see the tiny typos it was my job to catch and resting bleary-eyed on the couch, finally immune to the stimuli of coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol. There were other nights when journalism’s beating heart came alive—when
SENIOR COLUMN
we scrapped half a day’s news at 10 p.m. to cover the Minutemen stage-storming of fall 2006, or when, against all better judgment, I was put in charge of copy-editing the paper the day that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to Columbia. Either way, I never imagined I’d end up head copy editor. The section just seemed like a natural place to start. It was somewhere I could submit others’ writing to my scalpel instead of mine to theirs, learn how newspapers work, and then move on to something more glamorous. But inertia took hold, as it often does. Even as I grew tremendously fond of the people in the section, the work became less interesting and the hours, more demanding. I assumed these were necessary sacrifices for the sake of stability and advancement. Around the copy desk, many of us even reveled in our status as the so-called bastard children of Spectator. When I decided to run for head copy editor, I was motivated mainly by the fact that it just seemed like the natural thing to do. If an unpaid 40-hour work week fixing commas and syntax on top of a full load of classes at Columbia does not strike most people as “the natural thing to do,” well, most people also don’t have a particular emotional attachment to the Oxford comma and the em dash. But, on a deeper level, Spectator also operates on a different and fundamentally perverse set of rules—rules that make it easy and even normal to submit to the dictum that your health and happiness will have to wait for one more year. Part of the problem, as many of my friends from Spectator have noted in their own defense, is the culture of Columbia itself. The school’s cutthroat academics, intensely bright and ambitious people, and serene administrative indifference all contribute to a culture in which stress, misery, and sleeplessness turn into badges of honor. But Spectator’s culture,
April 22, 2010 by unapologetically forcing staffers to sacrifice their mental and physical health to a newspaper, sharpens and glorifies these feelings of martyrdom and self-denial. They became unbearable for me, and they remain so for many others. Some choose to grin and bear it. I chose not to, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I promised myself I wouldn’t be too prescriptive, since the preachy senior column has become something of a Spectator joke. So I’ll be brief: Whether you’re at Spectator or Columbia or anywhere else doesn’t really matter. Take care of yourself. Use Dostoevsky, Joni Mitchell, and the Smiths as companions, but don’t try to be them. Stress and ennui are not signs of merit—they’re signs that you should, at the very least, think deeply and seriously about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Walk away if you have to. And at the risk of spouting out one more cliché (which won’t be nearly clichéd enough until more people listen), get help wherever and however you need it. Space constraints keep me from writing more, but respect is due to the entire copy section, because it doesn’t get nearly as much as it deserves and because it was the only thing at Spectator that kept me somewhat sane for eight months. BA, PB, VDB, BG, MG, TT— the pleasure has been all mine. EW, ICB, and DD, for bringing me in, making me stay, and letting me leave. LC, JR, and HV for kvetching and sympathy. I’ve likely forgotten several people and made several points rather poorly. But we at copy always held a special hatred for those writers who missed deadlines, and I don’t plan to suddenly become one of them. The author is a Columbia College senior majoring in history and concentrating in Hispanic studies. He was head copy editor on the 132nd managing board and associate copy editor on the 131st associate board.
We have created a culture in which it is more laudable to take six classes than to take four. looked at the Columbians sitting in awed silence listening to her and the other students accompanying her, I knew that everyone benefited from the performance in different ways. Kayte, a hard-working Columbia student, and her fellow bandmates were relishing the opportunity to express their artistic and musical passions in their full glory. On the other side of the stage, the audience enjoyed another freeing experience. I would like to think that, in listening to a classmate exercise her non-academic passions, the crowd unlocked its own creative aspirations. Perhaps the break from academic performance is something that spreads through contact. If so, I believe there is immense potential for movement at Columbia toward balancing out each of our lives by taking more time to express those interests and talents that don’t show up on our transcripts. Admittedly, our campus does boast significant infrastructure for nonacademic pursuits through student organizations. For some reason, however, an atmosphere of concealed talent dominates. It seems that all too frequently, we are stunned to find that an old friend of ours has a captivating voice, an awe-inspiring talent at painting, or an unrecognized prowess at a sport. Why is that? Does that have to be the case? I wonder if it is possible to foster a culture at Columbia that encourages people to want to express all of their passions in many different environments. There are a variety of ways in which students could create a community that encourages exercising all of the talents that contribute to an individual’s identity. Though it would be easy to suggest administrative changes to class requirements to encourage more time to pursue these alternate interests, I think the solution lies with us in the student body. We are the ones who create our culture, and as such, we have created a culture in which it is more laudable to take six classes than to take four and spend the extra time developing in ways that our future employers may never see. The culture we have built for ourselves takes more pride in double-majoring than it does in building friendships and connections to people who can reinforce passions outside of the classroom. As a result, we find our time utterly capitalized by the communal prioritizing of academics above all other parts of life. Though we may have a longer transcript to show for it by graduation, I cannot help but wonder what other faculties could have been honed and shared for the community’s benefit had we all worked toward fostering a culture of holistic development instead of settling for academic perfection. Derek Turner is a Columbia College sophomore majoring in anthropology and political science. Opening Remarks runs alternate Thursdays.
cindy chen
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The truth about comments
“A
thorough investigation has validated an ingenious theory that finally elucidates all the Tony offensive, cynical, G ong ignorant comments that have Tony G ong ever appeared on E x pl ai ns t h e Columbia sites. Un i ver s e They’re written by the same person.” Hateful anonymous Internet comments are destroying Columbia. First there were Columbia vs. Barnard feuds. Then a dumb Bwog comment last November claimed that Postcrypt Coffeehouse sold “tons of alcohol to minors,” which prompted an administrative attack on the innocent music venue. And, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, an anonymous comment on my last Spec column told me to “suck it.” So, in addition to crying, I’ve spent a lot of time this past week trying to understand the hateful comments written on Columbia’s pages. And it’s not that I wanted to do a particularly good job for this column. Most of them just had really bad spelling and grammar, so they were hard to read. But all my research has paid off. A thorough investigation has validated an ingenious theory that finally elucidates all the offensive, cynical, ignorant comments that have ever appeared on Columbia sites. They’re written by the same person. Let’s turn to the evidence. Uppercase letters are great—especially at the start of sentences. But people who leave hateful Internet comments seem systematically unaware of proper uppercase letter usage. Uppercase letters instead are consistently employed to express anger, or simply to highlight imperatives. Consider a comment directed at a naïve transfer student from Wesleyan University on Columbia’s CollegeACB page written on Aug. 12, 2009: “TRANSFER BACK! COLUMBIA SUCKS!”
I believe the same student attacked again on April 11, 2010 (“EVERYONE AT REFERENCE LOOKS THE FUCKING SAME. unless you describe salient physical characteristics, there is no way to know anyone from anyone”) and yet again just yesterday on April 21, 2010 (“EAT SOME FUCKING FOOD OR I’LL STUFF A CHEESEBURGER DOWN YOUR THROAT!!!”). The likenesses here are just too striking to discount. Another linguistic issue that our culprit struggles with is how to use ellipses. Before I continue, I should admit… I believe I also may have problems with ellipses. Fortunately, no one except my mom, two or three lonely Spec editors, and maybe (… just maybe) my CC professor has ever actu-
Hateful anonymous Internet comments are destroying Columbia. ally read through … any of my writing. This makes my grammatical impact minimal… but an anonymous comment on a Bwog article about attention-hungry people dressed weirdly on College Walk will be seen by millions. Thus, I believe our offensive commentator has a moral obligation to appropriately use a period or commas instead of… you know, ellipses. But this moral duty has been neglected. On April 8, 2010, under my Spec column on the Columbia College Student Council, the anonymous offender wrote, “suck it tony...obviously if you’re running for CCSC I’d definitely not vote for you...Isaac is an amazing, ambitious, friendly, generous, and intelligent person - he was a finalist for the Truman Scholarship and is a PPIA Fellow... both of which are extremely prestigious and note-worthy accomplishments...I am eager to see him as CCSC President and know how much he can do for us.” The villain lashed out again on April 18, 2010, in another ellipsis-driven comment that could benefit from some periods and commas: “god if everyone working for Bwog
is from Barnard it would explain a lot as to why it has been sucking so much this year… bwog, i don’t love you anymore.” You know, I don’t think Bwog loves you anymore either. Further clues indicate that our culprit may suffer psychologically due to troubled relationships with maternal figures. This symptom was initially manifested in a Bwog comment on Oct. 2, 2008, when the suspect posted “a YO MOMMA joke” (again demonstrating imprecise uppercase usage here) and posited that “the only one who gets offended at vagina jokes is someone who has one.” And that’s not even true, because I usually cry whenever someone calls me a vagina. The suspect’s conception of the maternal image has steadily grown more troubled. On April 3, 2010, the culprit attacked a fellow student on CollegeACB in the following way: “your mama looks like a HAIRRRRRYYY MANNN take that bitch.” And, on April 18, 2010, the suspect revealed even deeper misconceptions about his/her grandmother on Bwog: “My octogenarian grandmother dresses better than they do! Her tastes are way more modern!” By the way, I already looked up “octogenarian” and it just means aged at least 80 years. It has absolutely nothing to do with an octopus. Seriously. I checked. Is there any hope of identifying this culprit soon? Probably not, because I neither have access to nor understand the meaning of IP addresses. But I believe we are making good progress. We can disqualify me because I came up with this theory. And it’s important that we keep looking, because I believe the offender has started to target forums outside of Columbia. Watch for giveaway clues like “your momma” comments on YouTube and offensive Chatroulette behavior from anyone that could have a fashionable grandmother. And for God’s sake, be wary of anyone wielding a cheeseburger at your throat. Tony Gong is a junior in the School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in applied math with a minor in philosophy. Bears frighten him. Tony Gong Explains the Universe runs alternate Thursdays.
April 22, 2010
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April 22, 2010
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April 22, 2010
NEWS
Page 7
City proposes bubbles for tennis courts, faces opposition Guardian’s Emily Bell to lead digital media center TENNIS BUBBLE from front page
mission, she said, to form a coalition that now, among others, includes the Sierra Club and the Coalition for a Livable West Side. Neighborhood residents have taken issue with the diesel generators that would power the heated bubbles. According ADDRESS & EMAIL
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to Landmark West, the bubbles would be heated by generators fueled by four diesel fuel tanks using a volume of 2,300 gallons of fuel each. “The park is used by walkers, runners, joggers, and park lovers, and they will be breathing this,” Joan Bondell, who lives on Central Park West, said. PHONE & FAX
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Neighborhood resident Francine Wilvers said that she opposed the bubble structures because they are unnatural in a park setting. “You hope to breathe in beautiful oxygen that the trees are producing,” she said, adding that this project would be “so unhealthy and offensive and contrary to what the park is supposed to be.” EDITORIAL POLICY
For more information about the Columbia Daily Spectator and editorial policies, visit http://www.columbiaspectator.com/about.
Wilvers’ image of a Central Park with large bubbles is a grim one. “The park is a beautiful little jewel. It’s an oasis ... for people stressed out by the city and its demands,” she said, adding that “there is enough encroachment on the park already.” news @columbiaspectator.com ADVERTISING
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J-SCHOOL from front page already started to happen,” adding that all students had to undergo a mandatory digital media training for the first time this year. Shehrbano Saiyid, Journalism ’10 and specializing in broadcast, said that the J-school’s CORRECTIONS
The Spectator is committed to fair and accurate reporting. If you know of an error, please inform us at copy@columbiaspectator.com.
focus is in flux. “Old forms of journalism are going out,” she said. “The journalism school is trying to make the students realize that it’s a part of our success to better know the internet and digital media.” leah.greenbaum @columbiaspectator.com COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
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Page 8
NEWS / SPORTS
No strike for building workers at CU NO STRIKE from front page
According to 32BJ spokesperson Kwame Patterson, the new contract must go through a three-week approval process, and union members and the RAB board of directors will ultimately vote on the final terms. Zuk said that she, for one, planned to vote for the new contract. “I think it’s a fair settlement, and there could’ve been a better wage increase over four years, but I think they did well and averted a lot of unnecessary givebacks,” she said. The union had set a deadline
of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday to reach a settlement, and had prepared its workers to walk off the job at 7 a.m. if an agreement wasn’t reached. They didn’t quite meet their own deadline, with a final contract agreed upon at 12:10, but Patterson said that didn’t matter to the negotiators. “It was a tough fight. We weren’t shaking each others’ hands and saying, ‘Let’s take this to 12:01.’ It was extremely tough, but once the final word came at 12:10, everyone just spilled out into the hallways of the hotel in complete elation,” he said. “There
were hugs, high fives, cheers. Everyone was screaming.” As she picked up a package from her doorman, Christina Olsson, CC ’98 and a resident of 600 West 111th St., said she was just relieved that the walkout was avoided. “It would’ve been a hassle, but hopefully the fact that it didn’t happen means they were able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement,” she said. The University declined to comment because it was not involved with the negotiations. sarah.darville @columbiaspectator.com
April 22, 2010
Citi CEO grad speaker stirs controversy SIPA from front page
Some argue, though, that Pandit is not a model leader for students. Xiao Yi Chen, SIPA ’10, said, “Based on everything that’s happened, you can’t help but get the sense that he’s not very good at his job. And that’s the main reason I can understand why a lot of students are angry.” This isn’t the first time that SIPA students have expressed dissatisfaction with the school’s commencement speaker choice. In 2008, when the school invited Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Steve Fainaru, many students complained that the choice did not live up to the school’s prestigious reputation. Coatsworth also said the school asks “SIPA students to express their preferences for commencement speakers, but we also consider other factors.” But Kamal said, “What we don’t understand as a student body is how you can—in the midst of that crisis—have a representative from that industry come and speak to the students who are directly concerned with these issues.”
Coatsworth defends Pandit’s actions in light of the financial crisis, citing the fact that Pandit “reduced his own salary to one dollar per year, and designed the recovery strategy Citi has followed since.” Coatsworth also said of Pandit, “He is unusually thoughtful and forthright on the role of Citi and other banks leading up to the crisis, most recently in testifying before Congressional committees,” and added that the bank “has repaid all of the $45 billion in TARP funds it received from the U.S. government.” elizabeth.scott @columbiaspectator.com
Tennis head coach Bid Goswami fields consistant, winning teams during tenure TENNIS from back page brother Justin Chow won the Northeast ITA Regional Doubles Championship, and advanced all the way to finals of the doubles back-draw at the National Indoor Championships and were ranked as high as No. 20 nationally. In 2008, Borta reached the finals of the ITA Regional Singles Championship, and advanced to the National Indoor Championships. Columbia’s success on the national tennis scene stretches much further back however, as Columbia was actually the first college in the United States to play organized tennis. In 1987, the team was ranked as high as No. 23 in the nation, and had three players out of the starting six play professionally after graduation. But the team’s most consistent run of success, both within the Ivy League and on the national stage started at the turn of the century. Under head coach Bid Goswami, who has been at Columbia since 1982, the team won two league championships in the 1980s in ’84 and ’87, and only one title in the 1990s in ’94. Since 2000, the team has notched a 68.83 percent winning percentage, and since 2005, that percentage jumps to almost 80 percent. Despite Columbia’s success within the Ivy League today, it had a much more prominent profile on the national stage in the 1970s and 80s. “The college game has gotten stronger nationally. Back in the 1980s, the Ivy League had two teams in the top 25 in the country,” said Howard Endelman, a stalwart on the 1987 team, who went on to play professionally and is considered one of the best players ever to play for Columbia. However, the beginning of the 2000s brought a tremendous amount of individual success for the Columbia tennis team, along with Ivy titles in 2000 and 2001. “We had such good chemistry within the team, and winning the Ivies helped us do well in doubles, and when we did
well in doubles, that helped the team,” Akram Zaman, CC ’01 said. Zaman transferred from USC and played for Columbia at the top of the lineup on the two championship teams in 2000 and 2001. “I think it was the perfect storm. First, we gained positive momentum in the early part of the decade after winning Ivies in 2000 and 2001,” Oscar Chow said. “Those wins gave our future teams the confidence and belief that we were the best in the league. Second, I think the early teams in 1999-2001 set a standard of excellence in their athletic ability, but also in their mental toughness and fighting attitude. … These guys didn’t care about anything but fighting hard and winning, and I see those similar qualities in the team today.” Rajeev Emany, the top player on the team from 2001 to 2005, offered up another explanation for the team’s success early in the decade. “2000 and 2001, we had two championships with guys who were absolutely incredible individual players. Just really good tennis players. Oscar [Chow] was playing No. 5 in 2000 and I think he’s one of the best players to play at Columbia,” Emany said. “You had Salil [Seshadri] and Akram [Zaman] at the top. You had Steve Millerman who crushed James Blake in the [tennis center] bubble.” Despite their success at the start of the decade, Columbia struggled in 2001-2002, going 1-6 in Ivy play. “I would say there were a lot of different factors that year,” Emany said. One thing Emany cited was the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The bubble wasn’t built that day, so we had practice in Riverside Park that morning and it was a 7 or 8 a.m. practice and we start hearing all these sirens and seeing smoke. …We walked to the gym afterwards and we saw it on the news, that the first tower had been hit. It was surreal. I don’t want to make excuses, but I think New York showed a lot of
strength that year, but it also took its toll on people.” Another factor in the team’s struggle that season was the construction of the new tennis facility. Prior to that, Columbia was one of two schools in the nation that still played on red clay. In order to practice on hard courts for matches and for nationals, the team would have to travel to New Jersey. “We had to go to Binghamton Racket Club in Englewoods, New Jersey,” Goswami said. “Over the bridge, and sometimes they’d only have two courts. Sometimes, on Thursdays, I remember, we only had one court. I feel so blessed that I had some guys that were so passionate about tennis, happy to have what they had, and played hard.” “Bid’s push to construct the new Dick Savitt Tennis Center has reaped significant dividends in a very short period of time,” Emany said. “When I was a freshman and sophomore—1999-200— we were still playing on four clay courts with dim lighting and cramped court space. The Dick Savitt Tennis Center has really helped in terms of recruiting and training players.” After a down year in 20002001, the Lions began to get back on the path to the top of the Ancient Eight. “We came up just a little bit short [in 2004-05],” Emany said. “We went 6-1, but we didn’t have that little bit of luck. That team was more talented than any other team I’ve seen, except this year’s team. Everyone was concerned about the bigger picture, the bigger goal, and what was at stake.” The program’s rally back to the top culminated with their dramatic championship in 2007, when it beat heavily-favored Penn in back-to-back weeks, including winning the first one on the road. The two teams finished tied so a playoff decided who would get the NCAA berth, and the Lions beat Penn at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The success continued in 2009, when the team went 6-1 in conference play, and won its second
alyson goulden / staff photographer
CHAMPIONS AGAIN | The Lions celebrate after winning their second consecutive Ivy title last weekend. title in three seasons. The season was highlighted by a 4-3, comefrom-behind win against favored Harvard on the road. This past weekend, Columbia clinched its third title in four years, going 6-1 in Ivy play. All of the alums of the program cited similar reasons for the program’s recent success. “The kind of players Bid recruits tend to do well in the system,” said Salil Seshadri. “It’s always a good mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I think in our starting six for singles, I was the only senior.” “Bid has been able to find enough of the right type of player,” said Endelman. “Someone who wants to reach his potential and doesn’t allow perceived barriers or excuses to become an obstacle to success. If a kid wants to reach his potential, both as a player and as a person, he should come to play tennis at Columbia.” From all former players, ranging from those in the 1980s to current standout and No. 1 singles player Jon Wong, however, one theme rang constant. “Bid is obviously the backbone to this incredible team,” Wong, a senior, said. “Without him, it would be hard to imagine what Columbia tennis is. His devotion to us is incredible.” “I know most of the coaches nationally, and Bid is one of the top five college tennis coaches in the entire country,” Endelman said. “Bid is one of those unique and rare leaders who has the ability to motivate and lead players to achieve, even if he has nothing to take away if they do not work hard, like an athletic scholarship. In the 28 years I have known Bid, he has always been able to assemble a team of individuals, in an individual sport like tennis, and mold them into a team that is always better than the sum of its parts.” “I think Bid is clearly the common bond, to state the obvious,” said Seshadri. “I think what Bid does particularly well, which is pretty underrated, is that when you play at an Ivy League school,
it’s different than schools where players play on scholarship.” “Without a doubt, coach Bid deserves all the credit for the success of Columbia tennis, period,” Chow said. “Year after year, he brings to Columbia a tremendous amount of energy, with a particular focus on refining the technical and competitive skills of each player. I believe his experience, both as a player and coach, are second to none in the NCAA. Yet more than anything, Bid creates a culture of Columbia tennis that revolves around teamwork and family.” Zaman elaborated on the community of Columbia men’s tennis. “Part of it is recruiting players, but part of it is motivating the team,” Zaman said. “You get so many players and personalities, and he’s the center of this system, of all the players and everyone associated with Columbia tennis.” “Every new kid needs to feel a part of this community when they come in,” Zaman said. Goswami is reluctant to accept too much of the credit for the programs long-standing success for himself. “We’ve been lucky,” the head coach said. “We’ve gotten the right guys and they worked hard. We’ve had a good run, we’ll play nationals, and then I’ll start thinking about next year already.” With an eye to the future of the program, most are optimistic about what the future holds. “It’s more of the same to be honest,” Akram said. “As long as the leadership team of Bid and his assistant coaches are around, those players will take care of themselves.” “I am cautiously optimistic. I think the Ivy League schools generally are allocating a lot more resources to tennis. Yale’s outdoor tennis facilities are like the U.S. Open and their indoor facilities are the best in the country. It is not an accident that Yale had the No. 2 ranked recruiting class in the U.S. last year. Harvard and Princeton have great facilities and are always going to be good. Of course, I always believe
that something great is going to happen, because Bid has created a program that has been encouraged to flourish under our athletic administration. There is no question that Bid is a miracle worker who always finds a way to succeed. However, we need to be very careful not to allow ourselves to fall too far behind in any area, whether it be facilities, recruiting, player development, or financial aid.” “Ten years down the road, I see this team continuing its success as long as the coaches and support—alumni—are still here,” Wong said. “However, I feel that there needs to be more attention on tennis since it is such a successful program. If this team received even half the amount of media as football or basketball, I think that this program could be even more successful.” “It really comes from the top, it’s all dependent on leadership,” Emany said. “Yeah, the captains do a little, but it’s really trumped by Bid. You need to have a great leader like Bid … and if Bid is still here in 2020, I don’t see why Columbia wouldn’t win another five.” Goswami has a singular focus when it comes to the future of the team. “If we can compete for the Ivy title every year, I think it will fall into place nationally,” Goswami said. “We’ll have certain good years like where we beat TCU and SMU. But the sky’s the limit, and we’ll try our best.” A reflective Chow provided a glimpse into the mindset of future teams. “I think the recent success will certainly inspire confidence in the new generation of Columbia tennis players,” he said. “Future teams can hold their heads up high, knowing that they are playing for the same team that dominated Ivy League tennis over the past 10 years.” Chow finished with a simple view of the future. “I see no reason why we can’t continue our success. I just hope Bid is there when my kids are going to college.”
April 22, 2010
SPORTS
Light Blue track readies for historic Penn Relays TRACK from back page setting personal bests at 800m and 1500m equaling 1:48.21 and 3:45.76, respectively. The former currently ranks No. 5 in the NCAA, making Moriarty as much a threat as any on the anchor leg. Merber is more of a 1500m specialist and hasn’t raced at the half mile outdoors this season. But his personal best from last spring stands at 1:53.75 and, more impressive, he was able to cut the mile in 3:58.52 this winter indoors. Mark possesses the most experience wearing light blue and is the only returner from the 2007 championship squad, in which, as a freshman, he ran the opening leg and handed off the baton in third. He’s run 1:50.32 this spring, and has been an emblem of consistency over his career, clocking under 1:51 every season outdoors. Stewart had a breakout season last spring, posting 1:51.52, and has run 1:52.57 this season. “Kyle looks great and is ready to go,” Wood stated. “Jeff has never been this fit in his life. We feel if we can get him the baton close
in the 4x800m that we have a legitimate shot to win.” A second notable event will be the men’s distance medley relay, which will include three members of the 4x800: Moriarty, Merber, and Mark. They’ll be joined by sophomore Justin Holloman on the 400m leg, who boasts a best of 49.31. Moriarty will run the 1200m open-
“Penn is an extremely important meet in terms of relays. ...Huge bragging rights are at stake.” -Willy Wood, head coach ing leg, Mark the penultimate 800m, and Merber the anchor 1600m. The group will surely threaten Columbia’s school record 9:50.15, and their chances beyond that are promising. Moriarty can run with the best over three laps, and if Merber is
anywhere near the lead when he gets the baton, there’s no counting him out. The women’s 4x400m is a youthful group, entirely made up of underclassmen—sophomores Sharay Hale and Kyra Caldwell, and freshmen Yamira Bell and Uju Ofoche. But they are prodigious talents. With a current best and school record 3:42.69 to their name, and No. 65 ranking in the NCAA, they’re not quite at the level of the men’s 4x800m or DMR, but no doubt they eventually will be. Their race will be an exciting run, as it will showcase the group on the biggest venue they’ve competed on up to this point—one for which they’re sure to return as considerable threats in coming years. Hale is the consummate star, having run the fastest 400m for a freshman—52.64—last spring. She is clearly in good form, as she set a personal best and school record 52.61 at Auburn last week. The competition she’ll face over the anchor leg will provide her with invaluable experience and will be a great dry run for this year’s NCAAs. “Sharay is currently the fifth fastest 400m runner in the
NCAA,” said Wood. “She will dramatically impact our placing in both the 4x400m and the DMR.” The women’s middle and long distance talent will come together for the 4x1500m. Juniors Jackie Drouin and Erin Hays will lead the group, which also includes senior Serita Lachesis and freshman Caroline McDonough. Drouin currently tops the Ivy League with her 4:23.46 best set at UNC on April 10, and Hays, Lachesis, and McDonough are situated at fifth, eighth, and ninth, in 4:27.12, 4:28.37, and 4:28.94, respectively. Apart from the relay events, a slew of men and women will compete in the open 5k, with senior Bobby Hartnett returning to the race at which he set his personal best 14:09.34 last year. Hartnett posted a personal best 3:48.50 1500m this season and is primed to bring his 5000m mark to under 14 minutes. Competition gets underway with the college women’s 400m hurdles Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and will conclude Saturday night with the college men’s 4x400m Championship of America at 6:00 p.m.
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CU baseball falls in midweek doubleheader BASEBALL from back page
up by two runs. Manhattan relievers Mike Gonzalez and Tom Moran sealed the deal by hurling a combined three innings of shutout work without allowing one baserunner to reach first. The Jaspers tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth en route to a 6-2 win for the twogame sweep. Giordano was awarded his fourth win of the season (4-1) for his four innings of work, in which he allowed three hits and
two earned runs. Kleban earned his first decision of the year as he dropped to 0-1 for giving up two runs on just one hit over an inning and a third of work. Despite the disappointing outcome of the day, the Lions possess a comfortable lead in the Gehrig Division. Columbia continues conference this weekend with a four-game road series against upstate rival Cornell. The first pitch of both doubleheaders will be tossed at noon on Saturday and Sunday.
Columbia’s Triathalon Club goes the distance LOPEZ from back page together on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. at the Sundial for bike rides, and on Sundays at 9 a.m. at Uris Pool. While I will definitely be here over the summer, I unfortunately will not be training along with them. I
might change my mind if they added jet skis, motorcycles, and sports cars into the mix, but that’s for another column. Bart Lopez is a Columbia College junior majoring in economics-mathematics. sports@columbiaspectator.com
Light Blue to host nonconference rival Rider in last home matchup of April BY CHRISTOPHER BROWN Spectator Senior Staff Writer The Columbia softball team (10-25, 2-10 Ivy) will face off against Eastern College Athletic Conference opponent Rider University(10-23-1). The Light Blue hope to avenge two earlier losses to the Rider Broncos earlier this season at the Rebel Games in Florida. On March 14, Columbia was edged by Rider in a 2-1 loss. Second baseman Alison Lam used a leadoff walk, a steal, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly from junior infielder Karen Tulig to score the Lions’ only run of the game. Tulig sustained a fractured jaw after sliding into third base in the top of the fourth inning and has been sidelined ever since. In the bottom of the inning, Rider tied the game by cashing in
COLUMBIA VS. RIDER
COLUMBIA VS. RIDER
Baker Field, Thursday, 3 p.m.
Baker Field, Thursday, 5 p.m.
Amanda Centeno’s leadoff single, and took the win on a walk-off home run from catcher Sam Pugh with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Centeno has a .372 batting average with one home run and 15 RBI this season. Rachael Matreale pitched seven complete innings in the win, and leads her team with a 2.72 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 108 innings pitched this season. Columbia suffered a shutout the next day, losing 7-0. Sam Bennett allowed just five hits in seven complete innings for her only win of the season. She has struggled since, allowing 42 earned runs in the 34 1/3 innings outside in her other nine appearances.
The Broncos’ offense has been impressive this season, with three players hitting over .300. Heather Muscara leads the team with a .397 batting average along with two home runs and 20 RBI. Brittany Eckett has been the most productive hitter for Rider, with a teamhigh eight home runs, 32 RBI, and .695 slugging percentage in 34 games this season. Outside of Matreale, Rider’s pitching has not been nearly as impressive as their hitting. Bennett, Rachel Coleman, and Kelsey Krisch have ERAs over 6.00, pushing the team ERA to 4.80 overall. The doubleheader will begin at 3 p.m. at the Baker Athletics Complex.
shivina harjani / staff photographer
TWINBILL | The Columbia softball team will try to avenge its two losses to Rider earlier this season when the Light Blue hosts the Broncos this afternoon in a doubleheader up at Baker Field.
Sports Thursday, April 22, 2010 • Page 10
Triathalon Columbia’s Ivy League dominance spans decade Club goes Men’s tennis has taken five conference titles since 2000, seen success on national stage the distance
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’m going to be honest— long-distance sports don’t appeal to me. I’ve always Bart been more L opez interested in sports The Tailgating like basketball and Tales baseball, but I have to admit that I’m impressed by athletes who are both willing and able to compete in events such as long-distance swimming, biking, and running. I’m speaking, of course, about the members of Columbia’s triathlon club. The Columbia University Triathlon Club was started in the fall of 2005 in an attempt to expose the Columbia community to the unique sport. A triathlon is a long-distance race split into three parts: swimming, biking, and running. Make no mistake, this is not a race for the faint of heart. A successful triathlon athlete must be proficient in all three events, which is why the sport interests a select group of people. One such individual is Griff Curtis, vice president of the triathlon club. A Columbia College junior, Curtis has been competing for two years. The first question that comes to mind is, why join the club in the first place? “People join the triathlon club for a bunch of different reasons,” Curtis said. “I was a big biker and runner in high school, so that’s what attracted me to the triathlon club.” It wasn’t long after he joined the club that he started working his way to the top. Last year, Curtis won the men’s race at the Buckman Triathlon on Sept. 12. That day also saw another Columbian win, as Columbia graduate Alice Henriques won the women’s division. With such solid individuals, it’s safe to say that the triathlon team is quite good. “We have been Ivy League champs the last three years running,” Curtis said. While the team is certainly successful, not every member is a seasoned triathlon veteran. “We have members of all experience levels,” Curtis said. “We have people that have done six to seven iron mans and people who did their first triathlon this year at nationals.” Curtis is referring to the 2010 Collegiate National Championship, held at Buffalo Springs Lake on April 17 in Lubbock, Texas. Last year’s nationals were a success for both the team and for individuals. The men’s team finished in 25th and Henriques finished second overall in the women’s division. This year, the Columbia triathlon team didn’t finish as well as it did last year, with the men’s team taking 36th overall. Russell Ericksen finished 90th overall for Columbia with a time of 2:07:44, and Curtis finished third on his team and 229th overall, with a time of 2:24:13. “It was probably one of the toughest courses I have ever been to,” Curtis said. “It went really well—we had a lot of newcomers as well as veterans, and we all did pretty well.” Nationals marked the end of the season, but that doesn’t mean the end of club activity. With summer just around the corner, the members will continue to complete their workouts in preparation for four to five races in the fall. “We have a coach that designs workouts for us, for all different levels. We have three, four team practices a week and one, two coach practices a month,” Curtis said. “There will be a group of us training here in New York over the summer.” The club normally gets SEE LOPEZ, page 9
BY KUNAL GUPTA Spectator Senior Staff Writer
Since the start of the 2000s, the Columbia men’s tennis team has, quite simply, dominated the Ivy League tennis scene. Since 2000, the team has won five Ivy League championships, more than any other Ivy League school over the same period, including three of the past four. Every year since 2000, with the exception of 2007, Columbia has had at least one player to be named first team all-Ivy, and except for 2001 and 2003, they have also had at least one doubles team be named as
first team all-Ivy. In addition, the team has had two players be selected as Ivy League Rookie of the Year, when Jon Wong won the award in 2007 and then again in 2009 when Haig Schneiderman was the unanimous choice. In addition to the tremendous success of the team, individual members have made a impact on the national collegiate tennis scene as well. In 2000, Salil Seshadri and Akram Zaman were ranked as high as No. 17 in the nation as a doubles team, and made the quarter-finals of the National Indoor Championships in the fall, as well as the quarter-finals
of the NCAA National Doubles Championship in the spring. In fact, in one of the matches, the duo was up a set and 4-1 and was just two points away from making the semi-finals, before dropping the match in heartbreaking fashion. In 2003, senior Oscar Chow made tennis history repeatedly. Chow won the prestigious Northeast ITA Regional Singles Championship, and made the quarter-finals of the National Indoor Championships, defeating the No. 9 player in the nation on his way. The spring brought even more success for Chow, as
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he once again reached the quarter-finals, this time of the NCAA National Singles Championship, the most prestigious college tournament in the country. Chow put together one of Columbia’s greatest runs ever, defeating four of the top 15 players in the country, including top-ranked Bobby Reynolds, a player who still plays on the professional ATP tour and has been ranked as high as No. 63 in the world. In the quarter-finals, Chow lost 7-5 in the third set to Benedikt Dorsch, who would go on to later win the 2005 NCAA Singles Championship. Chow was named first team
all-Ivy in singles that spring, finished his career as the top ranked player in the Northeast, and was named an all-American. As a senior, Chow went 28-5, with two of those losses coming at the hands of Amer Delic, who plays on the professional tour today and reached as high as No. 50 in the world. Chow was also named as the ITA Northeast Regional Senior Player of the Year and was one of eight finalists for National Senior Player of the year. In 2007, Bogdan Borta and Oscar Chow’s younger SEE TENNIS, page 8
Since 2000, head coach Bid Goswami has led the men’s tennis team to five Ivy titles, with the most recent coming this past weekend.
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Johnson, Shannon lead Baseball drops two games to Manhattan CU lacrosse to 17-9 win BY MICHAEL SHAPIRO Spectator Senior Staff Writer
BY JULIA GARRISON Spectator Staff Writer The women’s lacrosse team improved its overall record to 6-7 today, defeating Wagner 17-9. With the win, the Lions still have a chance at achieving a record of .500 for the season, if they defeat Harvard this Saturday in their final game. Columbia started scoring right away, gaining a 2-0 lead during the first two minutes of play with goals by freshman Kacie Johnson and senior Brittany Shannon, both of whom would eventually finish the game with five goals each for the Light Blue. However, Wagner was able to keep up throughout the beginning of the first half, tying the score at 2-2 and responding to every Columbia goal with a score of its own. With 10:11 left in the half, the Lions narrowly led the Seahawks 6-5. However, Columbia was finally able to pull ahead in the next 10
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minutes, scoring four goals—two by Johnson, one by Shannon, and one by junior Gabrielle Geronimos—before the break to widen its lead to 10-5 at the half. The Lions took off again at the opening of the second half by scoring three unanswered goals, two by sophomore Taylor Gattinella and another by Geronimos. Although the Seahawks fought back with four goals in the half, the Lions overwhelmed them with another four of their own, eventually emerging victorious with a wide 17-9 victory. Sophomore Megan Carley scored the final goal of the game, which marked the first goal of her collegiate career. Columbia will close out its season against Ivy rival Harvard this Saturday, April 24 at 1 p.m. at Robert K. Kraft Field.
jose giralt / staff photographer
FIRST EVER | Sophomore Megan Carley scored her first collegiate goal in the Light Blue’s 17-9 win over Wagner yesterday.
The Columbia baseball team took a brief hiatus from its successful Ivy League season to play a doubleheader against the Manhattan College Jaspers yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Lions were unable to pick up a win as the ballclub dropped to an overall record of 18-16 (9-3 Ivy). Game one began as a pitching duel between Columbia starter Zach Epstein and Manhattan’s John Soldinger. The Lions drew first blood in their half of the second on a double by Alex Aurrichio and an RBI single to right field off Alex Ferrera’s bat. However, the Light Blue left one runner stranded on the basepaths after Billy Rumpke grounded into a double play. Epstein pitched four innings of shutout ball, but Coach Boretti called in Eric Williams from the bullpen to take over in the fifth. Epstein surrendered five hits and a walk, while striking out five batters, during his time on the mound. Williams picked up where Epstein left off, and blanked the Jaspers during his two innings of work. Leading 1-0 entering Manhattan’s half of the eighth, Columbia reliever Derek Squires was called in to close out the game. However, Jaspers junior Mark Onorati smacked a single to left field to kick off the inning, and was brought home on a single by outfielder Mike McCann. The Lions struggled to reach base as Soldinger shut down batter after batter over his complete game, eight-inning gem. With the game knotted at one run apiece entering the bottom of the eighth, Squires served
jasper l. clyatt / senior staff photographer
IT’S OUTTA HERE Though sophomore DH Alexander Aurrichio launched his ninth home run of the season, the Lions still couldn’t win. |
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up a walk-off round-tripper to Jaspers freshman Kyle Murphy to give Manhattan the 2-1 win. Squires was charged with the loss and dropped to 1-1 on the season, while Manhattan’s Soldinger evened his record at 2-2 with the win. The late-inning loss in game one didn’t help the Light Blue in the nightcap. Columbia struck first once again against Jasper starter Mike Giordano, with a sacrifice fly by Anthony Potter.
However, Lions starter Roger Aquino lost the lead in the third on a two-out rally that plated two runs to put Manhattan ahead 2-1. In the top frame of the fourth, Columbia tied the game on Alex Aurrichio’s team-leading ninth home run of 2010. However, Lion reliever Ricky Kleban gave up a two-run homer to freshman Joe Rock to put the Jaspers SEE BASEBALL, page 9
Men’s 4x800 gunning for Championship of America title at Penn Relays BY GREGORY KREMLER Spectator Staff Writer This weekend, Columbia track and field will take part in its most important meet of the season yet: the Penn Relays Carnival. Held at the University of Pennsylvania’s legendary Franklin Field, the meet will span Thursday through Saturday and will feature competition at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Representatives from all conferences of NCAA Division 1 will make the trip for one of the largest and most exciting meets not only in the Northeast, but in the entire country. “Penn is an extremely important meet in terms of relays,” head coach Willy Wood said. “I think it is considered the relays national championships. Huge bragging rights are at stake.” Columbia has experienced
COLUMBIA AT PENN RELAYS Philadelphia, Pa., Apr. 22-25.
major success at the event in recent years, most notably capturing the men’s 4x800 Championship of America title in 2007. That was the first time an Ivy had won a Championship of America event since 1974 and the first time for Columbia since 1937. This year offers comparable promise. “After we won in 2007 and experienced what it was like to take a victory lap in Franklin Field, it is something that our runners want again badly,” said Wood. Juniors Jeff Moriarty and Matt Stewart, sophomore Kyle Merber, and senior Mike Mark will make up the effort. Moriarty has been on a tear this outdoor season, SEE TRACK, page 9
haley vecchiarelli / senior staff photographer
BRAGGING RIGHTS Several Light Blue relay teams will be looking to earn the coveted Championship of America title at the historic Penn Relays this weekend. Columbia won the title in the men’s 4x800 in 2007. |